Budget Model History at WKU

Prior to FY 2023, WKU used a historical, incremental budgeting process. Unit expenditure budgets were created and administered under guidelines that permitted relatively little unit autonomy in allocating or reallocating resources.

Under the RAMP initiative, a steering committee was formed to gather feedback from campus constituencies and to lead the process. The following principles were used to guide and inform steering committee decisions surrounding the development of the new budget model:

• Create a clear link between resource allocation and the University's mission, strategic priorities, and commitment to student success
• Develop a model that remains flexible and can adapt and respond to changing conditions, evolving priorities, and new mission-aligned opportunities
• Provide a consistent and predictable methodology for revenue and cost allocation that is easy to understand and features incentives that reward performance, entrepreneurship, and innovation
• Promote a collaborative and sustainable budget process that promotes transparency, efficiency, and accountability across all units
• Use a comprehensive approach to budgeting that reflects a shared commitment to the fiscal health of campus and ensures that institutional priorities can be funded
• Leverage trusted and reliable data to facilitate data-driven decision making and to promote enhanced forecasting and long-range planning

RAMP was established and implemented for the development of the FY 2023 budget.